Schrier H-2A Comments Pt 2
I'm Bob Larson. If you're still filling out your ballot and haven't decided on the open seat in the eighth Congressional district, many in the Ag community are using comments made by Democratic candidate Kim Schrier as their tipping point ...
SCHRIER-S1A = 14 ... "The H-2A Visa program does not work well for either the farmers or for the workers and can lead to sort of a pattern of indentured servitude where a worker is essentially held hostage by a potentially abusive farmer."
Washington State Tree Fruit Association president Jon DeVaney was at the debate where she made the comments and says the program has gotten a lot of attention, so I don't know that there's a lot of reason not to have been able to find out the facts ...
DeVANEY-8 = 16 ... "There could be advantages to reforming the program, to have the ability to move workers between employers, but right now that is a requirement of the program because the ability to bring in an H-2A worker is tied to that individual employer's documenting that there's a shortage."
But, DeVaney says it's in the rules ...
DeVANEY-9 = 24 ... "You can't have workers that go from an employer that has documented that they cannot send anyone just to some other employer. That's why it's employer specific. It's not about forcing the workers to stay in a particular place. It's about ensuring they're not doing harm to the rest of the domestic workforce and it's really, I think, unfair to characterize this as an abuse by agricultural employers and these farmers when they're complying with the law designed to protect U.S. workers."
Washington Farm Bureau CEO John Stuhlmiller has asked Schrier to apologize for attacking farmers.
